Fire and Brimstone
by Bellerophon of Syria
Summary: Kira took the world unaware, and kept most of it that way. Americans with various strong opinions struggle to chart a course in this unfathomable storm.
1. December 4, 2006: Peoria Times Dispatch

_December 4, 2006 – Peoria Times-Dispatch_

**Hoope Is Loopy**

_Jordan Wilcox_

Left-wing politicians run out of legitimate arguments the way most people run out of milk, but the illegitimate substitute is usually an unspectacular, tepid affair: a petty distraction, a worn gambit, an evasive platitude.

Senator David Hoope (D-NH), under fire for sponsoring a narcotics legalization bill that even most Californians regard as irresponsible, cannot at least be accused of using such boring tactics. He has skipped right past the race card and the mercy-over-justice nebulousness and gone straight to the realm of Internet conspiracy theories. Hoope argues that drug lords must be neutered (as he supposes the so-called "End Turf Wars Act" would have done with more co-sponsors) in order to nip the latest Orwellian overreach in the bud. He maintains, you see, that a federal enforcement agency has been assassinating drug lords with a poison that induces cardiac arrest.

Never mind how many lives heart disease claims, especially among adrenaline junkies. Never mind even the fine points about why, exactly, the CIA needed to be so subtle if they had located elusive, pitiless killers like Gus Krasnarov in the first place. The truly fascinating thing is that this particular theory surfaced on the Internet not a week ago.

Politicians are no doubt beginning to tire of being told to conform to the times and get a proper web presence, and likely should listen, but a senator who keeps such a hawklike gaze on bulletin board crazies is more worrisome by far. (One should only be grateful he didn't choose the narrative that Krasnarov was in fact killed by a Japanese spirit named Sparkle.)

The people of New Hampshire knew Hoope's reckless policies when they re-elected him last month. It is unfortunate they should only know now that such radicalism tends to come with vast, galloping insanity. It is doubtful they will remember this particular manifestation in six years' time, but one can hope Hoope's opponents in the Senate will diligently note it.


	2. December 5, 2006: FierySteve's BB

_December 4, 2006 – Peoria Times-Dispatch_

**Hoope Is Loopy**

_Jordan Wilcox_

_December 5, 2006 – FierySteve's Awesome Bulletin Board_

**DaveD**

Calm down. The footage is fake. I mean, it's not even a good fake. Anyone with basic First Aid training knows heart attacks don't work that way.

Gotta ask how they managed to hijack all the Japanese channels, though. And why. It's pretty bizarre, as frauds go.

**endlessmuse**

heart attacks don't normally kill people without heart conditions, either. or kill fifty notorious criminals in a week. it's real. terrifyingly real.

**DaveD**

And I'm sure you heard all that from a completely reliable source.

**katiebaby83**

What is this! Why is everyone freaking out, I cant even reach the video in the op?

**FierySteve**

Katie: All the news websites are down due to traffic. That's how huge this story is. Go find a TV; they'll get into greater depth than we will. In a nutshell: Kira is real. He's really been killing all these criminals. He killed a man on live television, without being in the room. This was a trap set by L, a murky personage all the police bigwigs agree is a Very Big Cheese.

I'm still trying and failing to process all this.

**endlessmuse**

kira is real. just stop and fathom that alone. there is some conscious force in the world that can reach out and stop your heart anywhere in the world. which means reality is not what any of us thought it was.

**Gurgi**

Unless you've held preschoolers at gunpoint lately – bare minimum – your heart should be okay, Muse.

**DaveD**

And apparently this scary reality-shattering cosmic force has only been shattering reality for a week. I expect more long-term commitment from my horror apparitions.

Why are we assuming Kira is male, by the way?

**The_Indomitable_Maggie**

Tailor didn't hold preschoolers at gunpoint, Gurgi. He just recited a script that spoke of Kira in uncomplimentary terms. Your complacency in the face of this defies belief.

**Gurgi**

Lind L. Tailor was in a secret prison. You don't get into a place like that by mouthing off. At least not in the UK, you don't. Maybe Kira knew exactly what he was.

**FierySteve**

According to 24NN, they're working on declassifying Tailor's personal details as we speak. Could hit the airwaves as early as tomorrow.

**The_Indomitable_Maggie**

Are you saying Kira is omniscient? Dave's right: omniscient beings didn't start operating last week, and they definitely don't feel the need to test their powers. (Powers... powers he has.) I'm also glad L is still around to hunt the bastard down.

**Gurgi**

I'm sure the victims' families revenged by Kira are ecstatic to hear that.

**DaveD**

...Wait, Lind L. Tailor is a real person the British government has files on? Files they are now willing to declassify?

Well, then.


	3. December 16, 2006: Mainstreet

_December 16, 2006 – Mainstreet_

**The Innocent Have No Fear**  
_by Sara Bordeaux_

_Are you frightened?_

The waitress's brow furrows minutely. She wonders, I think, why that question would even occur to me. Then she laughs, light and joyful. _Do I look like a serial killer to you?_

And indeed she does not. She is a wispy girl whose hair might just crest five-one. She has the stumbling air of the newly hired, and her features have the new-formed look of adolescence. Comfort born of habit is something she hasn't acquired yet, and so Kira has not discomfited her by disrupting it.

_Oh, absolutely._ My laugh is light like hers, but I can hear a nervous edge to it. I place my order. Comfort food. As the waitress returns to the kitchen, there is a definite spring in her step.

We're polite. Friendly, as far as strangers ever are. But at the same time, we stand on two sides of a chasm. It is almost imperceptible. Perhaps she doesn't see it; the truly innocent seldom do. I stand on the grey cement at the the edge, gazing across to the easy figure on the bright cliffs, not quite sure how she got there, envying her.

My heart is heavier than hers, but only with the years. We are equally safe from the hand of Kira, that devourer behind the scales. But I had lived in the ordinary world, chatting, and scarce dreamed that such a beast could be until it caught my gaze on the television. That is what wakes me in the middle of the night.

And in a way, sitting at that booth, staring out blankly at the overcast skies, I feel condemned even so. This fear cannot simply be because an alien presence exists. My mind, I had thought, is a broad one. There must be guilt, then. I must have done something, must be afraid that those formless evils will be seen, a child who has drawn on the wall and half-forgotten.

The waitress returns with my mac-and-cheese wedges, and I distantly thank her for them. I have barely an appetite left, but begin to eat anyway, and as the homely taste fills me, the world I've known all my life materializes under me. Only it is subtly changed from what it was.

What beauty it is, simply to sit at a window after a long day and and exchange pleasantries and eat something rich. It is a simple pleasure that a hundred black hearts have relinquished. It is life, and it is a wonder unto itself.

Outside the diner, it has begun to snow. Perhaps I will stay for a while longer.


	4. December 27, 2006: FierySteve's BB

_December 27, 2006 – FierySteve's Awesome Bulletin Board_

_**Are the Kira killings creeping?**_

**The_Indomitable_Maggie**

Caveat: the below probably isn't 100% accurate. It's not like heart attacks were exactly an uncommon way to die on November 27, and as Kira seems to be concentrating more on Japan lately, something is probably lost in translation.

Anyway, to proceed with killing your holiday cheer...

In the first week, Kira killed the leaders of the most vicious _yakuza_, heretofore-untouchable drug lords, and maybe the most treasonous spy ever to work during peacetime. (Yes, Gurgi, you win that round. But it's L who squared him away, not Kira. Man, there's a story I'd like to get in full.)

In the second week, we saw heart attacks in three more hostage situations, at least one strongly suspected serial killer (I recall more), and dozens of convicted serial murderers. Fair enough. There are only so many Black Jack Baldwins to go around. (Though to all appearances, the Gloved Hand Killer is still at large in Newfie. Can't think why Kira would miss him.)

But here's where it gets interesting. Since the two-week mark, we've seen a couple of trigger-happy bank robberies, a highly shady polygamist, and... a lot of solitary first-degree murders. Here are three. The world can't have run out of serial killers just yet, can it?

Is this foot-in-the-door psychology? Are we being eased until one day, we accept the deaths of people who, unequivocally, don't deserve to die?

**CookieKook**

There's already a Kira topic.

**DaveD**

What, are we restricting ourselves to one topic on the death-curse-flinging entity with a jones for crime-fighting and five dozen apocalyptic theories streaming behind?

**CookieKook**

On a gaming forum? Sure.

**Gurgi**

In Serious Business? I don't think so.

Maggie, you're a Kira supporter and you just don't know it. You've as good as admitted that everyone Kira has killed did, in fact, deserve to die. But you have to be alarmist, don't you? Heaven knows working off the facts wouldn't help your case.

**70wings _(Mod Hat On)_**

While Kira definitely has the potential for more than one topic, this thread could easily fit into the stickied one. Locked.

_**Twelve FBI Agents Dead of Heart Attacks in Tokyo**_

**FierySteve**

Apparently, the FBI sent a task force to Tokyo two weeks back to aid L in his/her investigations. We know this because Kira has just killed them all. The FBI vows to stop activity on the case. I don't blame them.

**The_Indomitable_Maggie**

Jesus. When I posted this thread, I didn't expect its forecast to come true in the same day.

Condolences.

**endlessmuse**

ah, but can we hold the fbi to their word?

**DaveD**

First the Hillson sex scandal, then the Kantou broadcast, now this. What does it say about me that I've got a WRPG shrine for a newsfeed?

**Gurgi**

You know those bad fantasy villains whose main evil is crushing rebellions? Yeah, can't blame Kira any more than I can blame those "villains". If they weren't trying to get him killed, he could concentrate on the Lind L. Tailors of the world.

**The_Indomitable_Maggie**

Gurgi, you are really beginning to churn my gut.

**70wings _(Mod Hat On)_**

Strike to The_Indomitable_Maggie for personal jabs. Stick to the discussion, please.

**katiebaby83**

12 ppl just died, show some respect eveyone!

**sirpercival**

We cannot, and will not, sit down under this. So thank you, Gurgi. You may well have shown us how to stand.

More after I do some trawling.


End file.
